Secrets of Habitats

Secrets of Habitats — page 1 — What Are Habitats A habitat is a place where an animal or plant lives There are many different kinds of habitat A river is one kind of habitat while a desert is another kind Shaping a Habitat What a habitat is like depends partly on the climate the average weather in the area over a long period of time In a desert it rarely rains while in rain forests it rains a lot of the time The kind of rocks and landscape also affect the habitat and so do living things A forest would not be a forest without trees The Biggest Habitats Some habitats cover large areas Oceans cover two-thirds of the earth’s surface while conifer forests cover a little over one-tenth of the land area These large habitats are known as biomes 쑼 A map of the world’s biomes The largest is the water biome that includes rivers lakes and oceans The world’s major biome zones 4 Desert Taiga Mountain Temperate forest Polar desert Temperate grassland Savanna Tropical forest Shrubland Tundra

Secrets of Habitats — page 2 — 쑿 Monument Valley in Utah is an example of a desert habitat It is very dry with little plant life Each biome can be split into smaller and smaller habitats For insects the forest floor is a very different habitat from a leafy treetop In this book you will discover all kinds of habitats from rotting logs to the wide oceans You will also learn how human beings affect habitats and the living things in them 1 2 3 MEASURING RAINFALL Measure the rainfall in a local habitat for one month The amount of rainfall affects what the habitat is like You will need a small plastic bottle some marbles some water a permanent marker a ruler a pen a notebook 1 Ask an adult to cut the top off the bottle Put a layer of marbles in the bottom to weight it down 2 Turn the top upside down and push it into the bottle This will cut down on water loss through evaporation Add water to just cover the marbles Mark the water level with the marker 3 Put the bottle outside in an open area After a day use the ruler to measure from the mark to the level of the water This is the rainfall for that day Write it down 4 Pour out the water but not the marbles and then fill up the bottle to the mark again The next day measure from the mark to the water level again 5 Repeat for the rest of the month then add up your figures How much rain fell 5

Secrets of Habitats — page 3 — How Do Habitats Work Every living thing needs certain things to survive and grow Plants need light carbon dioxide a gas in the air water and minerals chemicals in the soil Animals need water food and shelter Living things also need others of the same species kind so that they can breed and produce offspring babies Providing the Essentials For an organism to get all it needs from its habitat it requires a certain amount of space Many creatures might share the same space but most need slightly different things Wolverines are weasel-like predators of the far north To catch enough prey each needs a territory of more than 200 square miles 500 square kilometers 쑼 A food web from the Amazon rain forest At the bottom are plants which make their own food Above them are plant eating animals then meat-eaters The space that an animal needs to find enough food for survival is called its territory Caterpillars may have a territory of just one plant Other animals need much more space Harpy eagle Jaguar Silky anteater Green iguana Cock-of the-rock Capuchin monkey Heliconid butterfly Scarlet macaw Agouti Passion fruit 6 Harlequin beetle Termite Begonia Fig leaf Grass Boa constrictor Giant toad Capybara Wood

Secrets of Habitats — page 4 — 씰 Most mammals are land animals but seals are adapted to living in the sea They have thick layers of blubber fat to protect them from the cold Chains and Webs The animals and plants in a habitat rely on each other in various ways One species may depend on another for food A rabbit needs grass to eat while a fox needs rabbits and other prey animals to survive Another species may need help to reproduce Many flowers could not survive without bees to carry their pollen from plant to plant Organisms also depend on each other for shelter Many animals live in trees while fleas for instance live in the feathers of birds or the fur of mammals Aphids are small insects that eat only plant sap Some ant MUTUAL BENEFITS species keep herds of aphids much like human farmers keep cattle The ants feed on a sugary liquid called honeydew that the aphids produce The aphids benefit too because the ants protect them from predators 7

3

PAGE 3 OF 29

›

The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.